Military commander suspended over security lapses, U.S. drone mix-up
The Defense Ministry removed Lt. Gen. Han Ki-sung from duty amid a review of front line ammunition protocols and a drone misidentification incident during joint drills.
A Mojave fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicle developed by U.S. defense contractor General Atomics takes off over the East Sea on Nov. 12, 2024, in this photo not directly related to the article.
JOINT PRESS CORPS
The Defense Ministry suspended Lt. Gen. Han Ki-sung from duty as commander of the Army's 1st Corps on Monday, citing an ongoing review into a series of security lapses, including a directive to leave ammunition unloaded at frontline posts and a near shootdown of a U.S. drone during a joint exercise.
"In connection with the inspection and investigation into recent issues related to the 1st Corps, the current corps commander has been suspended from duty as of today," the ministry said. "During this period, the Army Training and Doctrine Command's commander will serve as acting commander of the 1st Corps."
The Army's 1st Corps oversees the western front, a key gateway into Seoul. Controversy erupted after it emerged that, starting in the first half of this year, the corps had changed its guard-duty protocols at frontline guard posts and general outposts so that K6 general-purpose machine guns and other crew-served weapons used during sentry duty were kept without ammunition loaded, with ammunition boxes instead placed alongside the weapons.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff, which oversees the South Korean military's operations, mandates that ammunition be loaded during frontline duty in principle. The 1st Corps is reported to have changed its guard-duty protocol at the corps commander's discretion, departing from that standard.
Separately, last Thursday, the 1st Corps detected a U.S. Marine Corps drone flying as part of a joint South Korea-U.S. exercise at a general outpost in northern Gyeonggi and treated it as a potential threat before determining it was not hostile.
The U.S. military had notified 1st Corps personnel of the drone's flight plan before the exercise, but that information was not reportedly passed up to higher commands. As a result, South Korean forces issued an order for the unit to take an air-defense posture used to respond to unidentified aircraft. Troops held fire after determining the drone's flight path and appearance differed from those typically associated with North Korean drones, and the aircraft was confirmed to be a U.S. drone after it landed.
BY JANG GU-SEUL [lee.jian@joongang.co.kr]
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
